GOMEZ DETERMINED AHEAD OF CITY CLASH

Tonight’s Barclays Premier League match against Manchester City is set to be repeated on May 11 in the FA Cup final but, Jordi Gomez says the team are focused only on the job in hand.

“For us it’s not about proving a point ahead of the FA Cup final because that is not what we are focused on right now.

“Today’s game against Manchester City is about nothing else but trying to win three points for our aim of staying in the Premier League.

“If we get a result against Man City it will be a big boost of confidence for the team and it would also show teams above us that we are fighting our hardest to stay in the division.”

With 21 points still up for grabs until the end of the season, Gomez added that he would like to see Latics gain as many as possible.

“The necessity of having points at the end of the season demands that our performances must be very good.

“It will be good if we can improve our points tally from last season but the main aim is to make sure our points tally is higher than at least three other teams in the Premier League.”

The 27-year-old believes the understanding built between the squad could be the key to successfully gaining the points that the team desire.

Gomez said:

“We are never a team of individuals and we always want to work hard for each other.

“There’s a good understanding between the whole squad now because most of the players have been together for two or three years.”

One understanding Gomez highlighted was between himself and FA Cup goal scorer Callum McManaman.

“I’ve been enjoying playing with Callum and it was a good goal that he scored on Saturday.

“When we were both not playing we worked hard on the training ground to understand each other and I think that is really paying off now.

“It feels like if it had been anyone on the end of my pass on Saturday for Callum’s goal they would have been able to score the goal, whether that be Shaun (Maloney) or Arouna (Kone) because they are very confident at the moment.”